MDHHS: $200,000 to improve access to sickle cell health care

by | Oct 9, 2023 | Health and Wellness

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Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 9, 2023

CONTACT: Chelsea Wuth, 517-241-2112, [email protected]

MDHHS awards $200,000 to expand, improve access to sickle cell health care for Michigan families

LANSING – As part of an effort to increase patient access to multidisciplinary health care and improved care coordination and establish provider networks that focus on sickle cell disease, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has awarded two grants for sickle cell clinic expansion and enhancement.

The two awardees, each receiving $100,000, are:

  • Children’s Hospital of Michigan, which will seek to reduce the incidence of stroke among its clinic patients with sickle cell disease by improving access to necessary transcranial doppler ultrasounds.
  • Bronson Health Foundation, which will address issues of access to care and quality of care by developing improved referral networks and implementing a sickle cell-specific data collection module in their electronic medical record system. It will also strengthen its care coordination services and patient support activities.

“We are excited to see work begin on these new projects,” said MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel. “They will help us continue to provide more equitable access to care for those with sickle cell disease.”

These two projects join three other projects located at Henry Ford Health, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan that were funded in April 2022.

The new clinic award period begins Oct. 1, 2023, and ends Sept. 30, 2024. A second three-year cycle of funding is expected to be issued in the summer of 2024. Initial funding for the clinic program was included in the fiscal year 2022 budget signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as part of the expansion of the Children’s Special Health Care Services program to cover adults with sickle cell disease.

For more information on the new clinic services, please email [email protected]. For more information about the Children’s Special Health Care Services program or its enrollment process, contact your local health department or call the Children’s Special Health Care Services Family Phone line at 800-359-3722.